Hand tools, such as nut drivers and screwdrivers, often come in sets which require the user thereof to identify and choose from those available the particular tool and/or size desired to be employed. Such hand tools include a tool portion, often having a shaft extending rearwardly therefrom, and a handle portion that is secured to the tool portion (or to the shaft thereof) rearwardly thereof. The precise nature of the tool portion can vary, for example, it may be a nut driver or a screwdriver. Additionally, the precise sizes of the tool portions may also vary, ranging in size from, for example 1/16" to 3/4" in increments of a sixteenth of an inch.
Normally, sets of such hand tools are comprised of several of such tools, each of which is stamped with the size of its tool portion and/or other data or indicia. These indicias are often difficult to view, especially when the tool being utilized in dark or cramped places, such as in a basement (for example, behind a furnace) or beneath a motor vehicle. The individual tools in the kits may easily become mixed up, a problem which is compounded when sets having both English and Metric sizes are involved.
Additionally, use of such tools can prove problematic due to the shape and composition of the handles thereof. Often such tools are utilized in less than clean conditions, such that oil, grease, etc., can get on the handles thereof. In such conditions, these greases, oils, etc., make gripping and utilization of the handle (and the tool thereof) difficult.
Finally, use of such tools can prove problematic in that the shape of the handles are often either round or substantially cylindrical in cross-section. Thus, when used on surfaces which are not level, such hand tools are prone to rolling, i.e. rolling away from the user. This can be especially problematic where the retrieval of the tool constantly requires exiting from a working position (such as under a car) or when the work area is dark, thereby complicating location of the tool or when the work areas is full of places where the tool may roll (such as under an appliance) which may make retrieval thereof difficult or impossible to achieve.
Despite several proposals to solve one or two of the above problems, no handle (or hand tool) of which I am aware attempts to, or is able to, solve all three of the above-mentioned problems simultaneously, so as to provide a hand tool which is readily and easily identifiable by its indicia means, which can be utilized in conditions where oil and greases are present and which does not roll away even when placed on a nonlevel surface.